


In Vino

by sanctuary_for_all



Series: A Thousand Ways [2]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alcohol, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, First Time, Fluff, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-28 19:18:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3866716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Drunk Danny was an asshole who didn't know when to keep his damn mouth shut. At the moment, Sober Danny hated him with the fire of a thousand suns.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Vino

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't even part of my ["Partners"](http://archiveofourown.org/series/105629) series, which means it's even more wrong that I wrote this with three partial fic still waiting in the other universe. I just couldn't make myself say no to a bunny that showed up as clearly as this one did.

When Steve woke up to the sound of his cell phone ringing, he answered without bothering to check who it was. Either they'd caught a case, or someone he cared about was in trouble. "McGarrett."

"Damn it, you're not the cab company."

Steve blinked at the sound of Danny's voice, thick with alcohol but still surprisingly coherent. A glance at the clock showed it was 2:30 in the morning, the sounds filtering in through the phone making it clear that neither his partner nor the city had gone to sleep yet. "Danny?" He sat up, already reaching for a shirt with his free hand. "Where are you?"

"No, stay. Sleep. Good boy." The words slurred together a little, a fact that did nothing to mitigate the annoyance in Danny's voice. "You don't have to go into superhero mode. I didn't even mean to call you – my finger decided to be an asshole and hit speed dial instead of the right number. I'll be fine as soon as I have a talk with it. Go back to sleep."

The sudden dial tone in his ear made it clear he'd been hung up on, so Steve immediately called him back. After a few rings, Danny answered. "Damn it, Steven, I was in the middle of dialing. I've forgotten the rest of the numbers now."

"That doesn't matter, because I'm coming to get you." He kept his voice patient and soothing, knowing that Drunk Danny responded to orders even less well than Sober Danny. There was already a knot of worry at the bottom of Steve's gut at the idea of something bad enough happening to Danny (that Danny hadn't bother to tell him about) that he'd felt he had to go out and get blind drunk. If it had been about Grace, though, he would have sounded a hell of a lot more miserable than he did. "Just tell me where you are. "

Danny made an exasperated noise. "I'd hit your nose with a rolled-up newspaper if I thought it would work."

Steve's lips quirked, the knot easing a little. No matter what it had been, Danny would be okay. "I'm fully capable of tracking the GPS on your phone, Danno."

Danny sighed loudly. "Fine. I'm at the Tropicana, a bar name that shows absolutely zero imagination, by the way. I'm going to make you look up the address, because I'm having a little bit of trouble focusing right now."

This time, when Danny hung up on him, Steve just pulled on his shirt and grabbed his keys.

000

Danny was sitting on the curb outside the bar when Steve got there. He pushed himself to his feet when he saw the truck, swaying enough that Steve reached for his own door, but Danny only scowled at him as he got into the passenger's side. "I'm not a little old drunk lady, McGarrett. If I can drink this much without your help, I can sure as hell get into your truck the same way."

Steve would have argued with that assessment, except that was the exact moment he caught sight of the shiner already forming around his partner's eye. "Damn it, Danny." He could feel his fingers twitching, wanting to reach out, and he started the truck and pulled back into traffic to keep himself from doing something stupid. "If your plan was to get drunk and start a fight, the least you could have done was bring me along for backup."

" _I_ did not start a fight. I'm a responsible citizen, not an insane adrenaline junkie." Danny settled back against the seat. "I was drunkenly flirting, which is a time-honored tradition for the newly single. Other You started the fight."

It took Steve a moment to pick that apart, despite the fact that Danny had amazingly good diction for someone as drunk as he was. "You and Melissa broke up?" When Danny nodded, Steve's stomach twisted with its usual mixture of relief, guilt, and something he refused to put a name to. "Sorry."

Danny waved a hand. "Don't be sorry. You didn't punch me in the face." He scowled again, briefly, at something far away. "Other You did, though. Other You is an ass."

Steve shrugged. "That's what happens when you hit on people's girlfriends, Danny."

Danny poked him hard in the arm. "For your information, Mr. I Know Everything, Other You did not even _have_ a girlfriend. And if he keeps punching everyone who tries to flirt with him, he probably never will."

Steve's brow lowered, sure he was missing something. "Wait, so who did you flirt with?"

Danny shot him a "You're a moron" look. "I'm the drunk one here, Steven. You should not be this slow."

A second later, Steve got it. Two seconds later, his brain overloaded to the point where he had to pull over to keep from crashing the truck.

When they stopped, Danny hit his arm. "If I wanted to crash and die, Steven, I would have driven my own car home."

Steve gripped the steering wheel tight before turning to face Danny. "You flirted with ... Other Me."

Danny applauded. "Give the man a cigar."

"Danny." Steve's voice was choked, a thousand questions running through his brain. Only one, though, really mattered. "Why?"

"For science." Danny shook his head. "You're a nerd, Steve. You should already know this."

Steve was torn between wanting to strangle Danny or kiss him. Unfortunately, he couldn't do either. "Danny...."

His partner gestured to cut off the question. "I know, I know." His expression sobered. "Melissa said I was a great guy and she really liked me, but we shouldn't date because I was in love with someone else. I argued with her at first, said there was no way. It wasn't that kind of love." He looked almost sad. "Then I thought about it, and realized it might be that kind of love from my end. Probably." His brow lowered. "I never even told her the l-word. But I lost count of the number of times I've told you."

Steve had stopped breathing at some point in the middle of all that, grip so tight he could hear the plastic of the steering wheel creak. His knuckles were white, a single thought looping endlessly through his head. This wasn't possible. He had to be dreaming, or hallucinating, because there was no way this was possible.

Seeing the look on his face, Danny grabbed his arm. "This isn't on you, babe." His voice was so earnest. "Not your fault I was the stupid one this time. No need for the guilt, or the gay panic, or anything like that." His brow lowered again. "Though, as a maybe bisexual, I should probably punch you in the face if it's gay panic."

Steve made a sound that might have been a laugh if it wasn't so strangled. It sure as hell wasn't gay panic he was feeling. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Danny let go of him. "I was kind of trying to avoid making you look like you do now." He shifted so he was even further away, leaning his back against the door. "But I decided it was a good idea to see if the whole bisexual thing was more than just...." He trailed off, brow furrowing, then waved a hand in Steve's direction. "So I did an experiment, for science, and hit on Other You." He scowled again. "Not sure I really want to risk it, though. When a girl doesn't want you hitting on her, she just throws a drink in your face. Google really didn't give enough warning about that."

Every single fiber of Steve's body wanted nothing more than to reach across the seat, drag Danny into his arms, and kissed him until the only person he even considered doing an "experiment" with was him. But he couldn't, because Danny was extremely drunk and might not remember any of this in the morning. Worse, none of this might even be _real_ in the morning, the entire mess nothing more than heartbreak-induced confusion and brain cells drowning in alcohol. He couldn't risk it, not now.

No matter how much it killed him, he'd have to wait until tomorrow. And if all of this did disappear, then he'd have his own reason to crawl into a bottle.

Using every ounce of willpower he had, Steve forced one of his hands off the wheel long enough to start the truck back up. "You're sleeping on the couch." His voice was tight. "I'll drive you back to pick up your car in the morning."

Danny nodded, leaning his head against the window. "Then you can get back to sleep like a sensible person."

Steve couldn't make his voice work well enough to point out how utterly wrong Danny was about that.

000

Danny's first thought upon regaining consciousness, other than a fierce determination never to drink again, was the realization that he was on Steve's couch. Since his memory had started getting hazy somewhere around the fifth vodka shot, it was a hell of a lot more comforting than several other options he could have opened his eyes to.

Gingerly, he sat up, carefully feeling around his shiner and wondering how the hell he'd gotten it.  That, however, was a much less practical question then trying to decide whether it was worth attempting to clean himself up here or if she should just call in sick and focus on finding his car. His brain refused to comment on the matter, insisting that it couldn't do anything without coffee and a bottle of Advil. Giving in, he pushed himself to his feet and headed into the kitchen.

Steve was already in there, pacing back and forth with an untouched cup of coffee next to him on the counter. Danny immediately went over to steal it, mouth opening to ask what was wrong, when Steve turned at just the right moment to lock eyes with Danny. They both froze, and at that moment Danny's brain proved itself to be a traitorous, lying bastard by immediately presenting him with the knife-sharp memory of everything he'd said to Steve the night before.

Every. Single. Thing.

The mug slipped from Danny's suddenly nerveless fingers, shattering against the floor, and Steve sprang into action to clean it up. Danny still couldn't move, lungs and brain both paralyzed with abject terror at the movie playing out in his head. If he'd had the opportunity, he would have happily gone back in time and strangled himself before Steve's truck had ever showed up at the bar. Yes, he'd be dead, but right now that seemed like the better option.

Anything other than the truth, that he'd finally figured out he was _in_ love with his very straight best friend – in retrospect, the number of times he'd told the man he loved him should have been a clue – then got so drunk he'd actually _admitted_ it to him almost immediately afterward. If he survived this, he was going to get drunk solely so he could punch Drunk Danny in the face himself.

Steve, who'd sopped up the coffee and cleaned up the broken pieces of mug while Danny had his nervous breakdown, moved to stand in front of him. His voice was so quiet, like someone had just died. "Listen, Danny...."

Panic forced Danny's lungs to start working again, sucking in a sharp breath. "No," he said hurriedly, cutting off the rest of whatever Steve had been about to say. His voice was scratchy, heart hammering so loudly in his ears he could barely hear anything else. "Don't. Last night _never_ happened. Not any of it, and if you care about me in the slightest you will physically wipe it from your memory."

There was a moment of absolute silence, Steve just as frozen as he'd been. Danny knew whatever he'd been about to say had been well meant, something kind about how he still loved Danny even though he couldn't be _in_ love with him. That he was sorry, but they were more like brothers.

Danny knew the words. He could even accept them, especially because the other option was no Steve. But he didn't think he could actually stand hearing them. "Please, Steve."

At that, Steve gave a single jerky nod, but that wasn't relief in his eyes. It wasn't even guilt, or pain at having caused Danny pain. No, this was full-on shut-down mode, the my-mother's-a-bitch, Catherine-left-me, tortured-by-the-bastard-of-the-week face that meant he'd shut down all non-essential systems because it hurt too bad. The look that said he'd survive this, just like he'd survived all the other times his heart had been ripped out of his chest.

Holy shit.

He'd lost oxygen again at some point, so when he tried to speak no sound actually came out of his mouth. Steve turned, clearly making his escape, and Danny reached out and grabbed his arm. "Wait," he croaked.

Gently, carefully, Steve pulled Danny's hand off his arm. "It's okay, Danny."

No it fucking wasn't. Not willing to trust his voice again – sure, _now_ it couldn't manage to string two damn words together – Danny dragged Steve down and kissed him. It was horrible at first, Steve still stiff with shock or disbelief and Danny more terrified and desperate than anything, but then Steve sagged against him and opened up to let Danny in. After that it was amazing, clinging hands, bumped noses, pounding hearts and something suspiciously close to joy singing through his bloodstream.

His hormones were right on the bandwagon, happily crossing off the "maybe" on the "Danny is maybe bisexual" notation. At least as far as Steve McGarrett was concerned, and that was the only experiment he'd ever given a shit about anyway.

When they broke apart, Danny didn't dare let go of him. Steve was looking down at him with something like awe, both of them trembling just a little. Finally, Steve swallowed. "Please don't tell me I have to forget about that," he whispered, leaning his forehead against Danny's.

Danny closed his eyes. "I panicked when I remembered my whole monologue from last night. I thought you were going to try and let me down gently, and I didn't want to hear it."

"Danny." Steve's voice was rough. "The only reason you didn't wake up next to me in bed this morning was because you were way too drunk for me to touch you."

Throat tight, Danny opened his eyes to look up at Steve. "Seriously?"

"I am absolutely serious." The light in Steve's eyes was enough to rival the brightest Hawaiian sun. "Other than meeting you and Grace in the first place, your drunken monologue last night was the best thing to ever happen to me."

"For the love of...." Danny made a sound caught somewhere between a laugh and a sob. "I can't believe I fell in love with the world's biggest sap."

Steve just grinned. "Only for you."

Then Danny pulled him back down for another kiss, and no more words were needed from either of them.

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my new original fiction on my [blog](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)


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